This invention relates to a communication system, a communication apparatus and a method of controlling communication.
In a communication apparatus available in art, text data created by a personal computer or work station and image data read by an image reader are capable of being sent for facsimile transmission by a single communication.
An apparatus of this general type is as disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 2-81560. This apparatus first encodes the text data while developing the image data and transmits the text data via a modem. Thereafter, if an original is located in the image reader, the original is read by the image reader and the apparatus encodes the image data and transmits the image data via the modem.
Thus, after all of the image data based upon the text data have been transmitted, the image data based upon the original in the image reader are transmitted. This means that the order in which the text data and the image data obtained from the original are transmitted cannot be set at will. In a case where the image data obtained from the text data and the image data obtained by reading the original are combined and transmitted in a freely set sequence, it is required that the image data be incorporated in a file of the text data and that the data be treated as a single file.
With the apparatus described above, the image data of an original are transmitted, if the original has been placed in the image reader, after all of the image data obtained by developing the text data have been transmitted. Consequently, in a case where the image data obtained from the text data and the image data obtained by reading the original are mixed and transmitted for a facsimile transmission, a problem which arises is that the image data obtained from the original cannot be inserted at a desired location in text data, such as between a first page and a second page of the text data.
Furthermore, in a case where the image data obtained from the text data and the image data obtained from the original are transmitted in a desired order in the apparatus described above, it is required that the image data first be created by a personal computer or the like and that these data be transmitted after being incorporated in the file of the text data. If there are a large quantity of image data, therefore, a memory for storing the image data must have an enormous capacity. If a large memory is not provided, it may not be possible to transmit data or a limitation may be placed upon the number of pages of image data that can be transmitted.